The Postmistress Review

Written by Sarah Blake, The Postmistress is a complex portrait of life unfolding against the backdrop of the cataclysmic events of the 1940s, with its central characters being three completely different women whose lives were woven together by events that occurred during World War II in a place far removed from the actual theatre of frontline activities. The story unfolds both in the USA, in a small town of that era as well as in 1940 Europe. The story centres around the daily lives, on Cape Cod, of Iris James, as a 40 year old postmistress who has never married, counterbalanced against that of newly married bride, Emma Trask. Her new husband is a doctor in England who volunteered his badly needed medical expertise.

The third woman in the drama is a radio presenter, Frankie Bard, who presents her biopic of events during the London blitz and other occurrences that are a feature of life in Europe during 1940. Whilst this forms the backdrop of The Postmistress, the namesake of the story comes across a letter whilst sorting mail and, instead of arranging for its delivery chooses to slide it into her pocket, for whatever reason - finally revealed about halfway through The Postmistress. This is a powerful story of two nations whose concepts of daily life are vastly different, shaped by events through which each nation is experiencing and the impact each one has on the other.

Why does the postmistress choose to hide a letter, going against all her instincts of integrity and trust? The letter contains valuable information, so what is the story of The Postmistress going to reveal? The story unfolds through tragedy on both a personal level and at the level of nation fighting nation, with the personal lives of powerful women at their centre. The Postmistress is not a historical novel and, although faithful to detail of the times, does not focus on the London Blitz or any other historical events as such.

There seems to be a complex sub-plot amidst The Postmistress, derived from various intriguing love stories that begin to emerge as the story unfolds. Each one, in themselves, have the making of a good plot but, taken together, there is not sufficient stamina in each character for a full-blown love story to emerge in the time it takes for the novel to reach its ultimate conclusion.

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